Forgetting Fourth Year
by Waveforms
Summary: Ron finally accomplishes something of note, two years after finishing Hogwarts. Ron/Padma. This will be chaptered.


**Author's notes:**

Another story with Ron as a central character. I swear I'm not Ron-obsessed! I've done some thinking on the Ron/Padma pairing and decided it could work. So I wrote this. My first attempt at romance, let me know what you think about it.

After much self-deliberation, I also decided to make this a chaptered fic. It would really have been too long as a one-shot. I don't know how long this will end up being, though.

* * *

Ron stood forlornly behind the counter of the joke shop. Since summer had ended, business had been much slower. George said that this happened every year, but Ron still was somewhat depressed by it. Products that had flown off the shelves two months earlier were now gathering dust. Aisles that had once overflowed with enthused customers now only held empty air. And, most importantly, the register which had once overflowed with galleons, now held a measly three sickles and twelve knuts. George was actually at Gringotts now to get more change for the register.

Ron had, on a few occasions, almost asked George why he wasted money on hiring a salesperson when he could clearly handle everything himself. He always stopped himself because he already knew the answer; George didn't want to work alone in the shop, not when he had always envisioned Fred working alongside him. Ron was happy to act as a surrogate Fred. Even if the pay wasn't that good. He didn't have anything else to do, after all.

That didn't change the fact that the store's constant state of emptiness was fairly depressing.

As if fate was contradicting him, the bell above the door tinkled and in walked a slender woman of Ron's age. He recognized her immediately; one of the Patil twins. Which one, however, was another question. He racked his brain trying to remember if he knew of any physical differences between them. After a few seconds he gave up; if there had been any differences, he would have forgotten them; he hadn't seen either of them in the two years since they had graduated.

He hoped that the unknown Patil wasn't Padma. That would be awkward. Even after a war had been fought and petty things like relationships and dates were suddenly rendered a lot less important, it would still be weird to talk to a girl who had spent a year telling everybody what a horrible date you were. At least she couldn't say he was a bad dancer. That was something.

Of course, she was the only customer, so there wasn't really an excuse to avoid helping her find what she was looking for. Maybe it would turn out to be Parvati, and he would have just worked himself up over nothing. He walked out from behind the counter and found her looking at a hair-tangling hairbrush. "Are you finding everything okay, Miss?"

She responded distractedly, "Yes, I'm fine right now, thanks," before looking up and seeing who the salesperson was. Immediately a large grin appeared on her face. "Hi, Ron!"

Ron, who didn't want to sound stupid by guessing the wrong name, only responded with "Um. Hi." He immediately chastised himself for not coming up with something witty to say. His mind immediately began attempting to formulate a line that would be sufficiently charming. This train of thought was derailed by the girl's voice.

"Working up the nerve to ask for a dance? Sorry to tell you, you're six years late," she said, expanding her grin into a full-fledged smile. Ron was annoyed that she had come up with something witty before him, but at the same time he was glad that he now knew her identity. He was also thankful that she was willing to joke about their failed fourth-year date. He knew some girls who would hold a grudge like that to the grave.

"I never had a chance to properly apologize for that, did I? Sorry. I was a git. Now can we never bring it up again?" Ron said, grinning. He found himself surprised at how easy the words came out of his mouth. Wasn't it supposed to be more awkward than this? "Are you sure you're finding everything all right?"

"Actually, on second thought, maybe you could help me. I'm looking for a birthday present for Parvati. Last year she got me a biting thong and I'm looking for revenge this time around. Nothing along the lines of man-eating underwear, though," Padma responded, turning back to the shelf.

Ron was glad that Padma was occupied with the products, because he had turned bright, Weasley red. Had Padma always been this forward about things? Wasn't Parvati supposed to be the outgoing one? Ron's preconceived notions were shattering around him.

"Well, we do have a section of products like that," Ron said hesitantly. He avoided leading customers into "that" part of the store. It wasn't a sex shop, but it was getting there. He was glad Padma wasn't interested in "that" stuff. "But I think the aisle we're in now would be your best bet. Unless there's anything else you need, I'll leave you to your shopping."

Ron walked back to the front counter. As the blood-levels in his face normalized, he pondered the witch who was his sole companion in the store. She was quite pretty, he realized. He must have been blind to not have seen it fourth year. He wondered idly if she was single. Maybe he could ask her on a date? After his relationship with Hermione had ended (amiably) a year ago, he had gone a grand total of zero dates. Maybe it was time to get back in the game. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to go about asking a girl on a date. Both of his relationships at Hogwarts had just sort of _happened_, and even his Yule Ball date had been arranged without him having to lift a finger. His one attempt at asking out a girl had resulted in embarrassment and a lot of awkwardness at family gatherings. He cringed inwardly.

Ron was weighing his options when Padma came to the counter to make her purchases. All of it was thankfully tame. As Padma paid and turned towards the door, Ron decided to throw caution to the wind. "Padma?"

Padma stopped and looked back at Ron. "Yeah?"

"Would you like to go out with me sometime? You know, on a date or something?"

Ron's mind had instantly constructed a lot of terrible scenarios that involved open mockery or tears or cold silence. None of these things happened. Instead, Padma actually smiled. "Sure, why not? Parvati's always saying I need to meet more boys."

Relief flooded through Ron. That had been a lot more painless than he could have expected. He tried to keep his voice light and not sound like he was too happy. "Great. Would six on Friday work for you?"

As they finalized the details, Ron remained astounded at his good fortune. He had successfully asked out a pretty (correction - _very_ pretty) girl without making a fool of himself. After Padma left, Ron busied himself with reorganizing the shelves so that when George came back, he wouldn't notice something amiss, pry the information out of him, and then make fun of him for the rest of the day.

The bell above the door tinkled as George walked in. "Ron, where are you? What's a customer going to think when he walks in and sees the place apparently deserted?" George called out. Ron walked out from the corner of the store where he had been randomly moving boxes back and forth for the past five minutes.

"Sorry bro, just doing some reorganizing. Some snotty little kid was goofing around back in the unmentionables section and he screwed things up pretty good," Ron lied easily.

George laughed. "His parents are going to be getting some weird questions at the dinner-table." Ron laughed in response, glad for an excuse to wear the goofy grin that had been present ever since his successful date-acquisition.

An hour later, and Ron couldn't stop grinning. He stood at the counter doing the crossword in the Daily Prophet, except he wasn't really doing it; he was utterly and completely lost in thought. He felt as if he had accomplished something for the first time since the war ended. Even if the date was horrible, even if Padma hated him, he felt this was a stepping stone to doing more with his life. What was stopping him from going out and accomplishing _more_ things? He could march into the Ministry right now and demand a job! He was Ron Weasley, by Godric, and he was a _man_! Nothing could possibly stop him!

This masturbatory self-reflection was cut short by George coming out from the test room with the spout of a tea-kettle where his nose had been. "You've been smiling ever since I got back. You never smile when you're working. Is there something my little bro isn't telling me?" George inquired, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Ron knew that he had been found out. "A girl walked in and I asked her out. Simple as that," he said lightly, hoping against hope that George wouldn't press the matter.

George looked impressed. "Way to go! You must have finally grown a pair! Do I know this girl? Is she hot?" Ron's slight annoyance at George's shallow behavior was overshadowed by the fact that George was just being George, something that hadn't really happened that much for the past two years.

"You might remember her. She was in my year at Hogwarts, Ravenclaw. Padma Patil."

"Oh yeah, one of the _other_ twins." Ron marveled at the fact that George was able to say the word "twins" with such a light voice. "You went to the Yule Ball with her, didn't you? I'm surprised she even talks to you after that," he continued with a fist-balling smirk. "Of course, she couldn't resist the ol' Weasley charm, could she?"

Ron personally thought he was as charming as a toad in a tarpit, and that Padma had accepted his proposal more out of a desire to please her sister than anything else, but nodded anyway. George was still talking. "You haven't been on a proper date in a while, have you, though? You'd better brush up on your female interaction skills if you don't want to make a total arse out of yourself. Although, they can't be _that _bad if you managed to get the date in the first place. There's one bit of advice I can give you though."

Ron, who had been losing focus, perked up immediately. "What's that?"

"Don't talk too much. Girls hate it when you talk too much."


End file.
